Summary

This chapter covers numerous topics including slavery, immigration, activist groups, legislation, and police brutality in the British Empire. These topics aid in explaining how Black people were brought to Britain and how their lives have progressed since arriving. The author of this non-fiction work, Reni Eddo-Lodge, begins by recalling her own education regarding Black British history. Growing up in northern London, Black history felt distant from Lodge as she learned about Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., and other American-centric activists. Lodge became more immersed in Britain’s Black history, particularly with regard to racism, when she attended her second year of university. “This was an inadequate education in a country where increasing generations of black and brown people continue to consider themselves British (including me)” (25). Eddo-Lodge explains how Britain’s education system fails to accurately tell the past. Slavery is commonly a larger...